


it's not paranoia if they're really out to get you

by toque



Series: spooky wars [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Horror, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, cw for bugs, obi-wan has a bad time, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27242284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toque/pseuds/toque
Summary: Obi-Wan crashes another ship. This is not the worst part of his day.
Series: spooky wars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991056
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38
Collections: Spooky Wars Week





	it's not paranoia if they're really out to get you

**Author's Note:**

> day 3 of spooky wars week: haunted planets

_Of all the times for the navcomp to fail…_

Obi-Wan didn’t even have time to properly curse at the ship before all his attention was taken by trying not to crash into the planet that had suddenly appeared in the viewscreen where hyperspace had been a second ago.

He wrestled with the controls as the small shuttle screamed through the atmosphere, durasteel struts around the viewport heating to a visible glow that made Obi-Wan grit his teeth and pray to the Force it wouldn’t simply disintegrate around him. He was so absorbed by keeping the shuttle together through re-entry that he nearly missed the mountain that rose up in the viewport. 

Panic made him overcorrect and he wrenched the yoke to the right, but the shuttle wasn’t built for maneuvering at such high speeds and it spiralled into an uncoordinated spin that jerked him against the safety harness and cracked at least two ribs.

It was all he could do to gather the Force to keep himself from blacking out, steadying his hands as he aimed for a relatively open space.

He still didn’t manage to avoid all the trees.

* * *

Something was keening high and shrill in his ears, and Obi-Wan came back to awareness with a groan.

His face felt wet, and he felt it gingerly before determining it was only a small cut near his hairline. Assured he wouldn’t bleed out from a head wound, he turned his wavering attention to freeing himself. It took several tugs with clumsy fingers to release himself from the safety harness that was plastered against his chest. He tumbled out of it and barely caught himself on the instrument panel of the shuttle. If he actually fell over, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get back up again.

He stumbled his way to the gaping hole that had been torn in the side of the cockpit hoping that air not polluted by fuel and coolant would help clear his head. Outside, his breath fanned out in a white mist and he ran through his primary vocabulary in five languages. After several deep breaths, he exhausted his vocabulary in a few more.

Mechanically he shuffled his way back inside to gather any material he could.

One thing he did appreciate about Anakin’s custom death traps were that after several crashes and a joke “customer satisfaction survey” Ahsoka had put together, Anakin had begun stockpiling first-aid and advanced survival kits in them. His former padawan has always trended towards hoarding, and it was good for him to have a productive outlet for it for once. Obi-Wan made a quick check to make sure the emergency location transmitter had begun automatically after the crash, and then figured he should find some real shelter before the night cycle of the planet set in.

For someone with at least a light concussion and cracked, if not fractured, ribs, he made good time through the snowy forest he’d found himself in. The Force seemed determined to steer him towards _something,_ at least, and it was better than nothing.

He came out of the forest into a clearing that was free of snow, and the first dusty alarm klaxon began ringing in his mind. There was a flat black stone leaning at a precarious angle in the center and Obi-Wan tried to make himself turn back around, back towards the dubious safety of the shuttle, but his feet refused to move.

He looked down in dismay and in that moment, lost his concentration. His foot nudged into the perfect unbroken circle of the clearing and he shivered as the forest went silent.

It felt like the silence of a room full of people who had stopped talking when he walked in. Eyes followed his every move as Obi-Wan’s feet walked him up to the base of the stone.

A faint giggle carried on the wind and he whipped his head to the side. He regretted it instantly as small white spots flashed in front of him and he unconsciously reached out to steady himself against the stone.

There was a warning knell in his mind but the flash the Force provided of dark red against matte stone didn’t seem to make any sense. Suddenly, the vision was ripped away and he was left reeling, utterly dumbfounded when it was replaced with a hissing voice at the center of his mind.

_Altar._

He blinked.

_Altar. **Our** altar, and we accept your offering._

He jerked his hand away and the voice disappeared.

He stumbled back out of the clearing towards the shuttle, calling a one-man tactical retreat. It didn’t take long for him to realize that although the Force had guided him to the clearing, he was getting no such direction back to the shuttle, and he stopped at the edge of a ridge. Apparently he hadn’t totally missed the mountain when he was crashing, and his heart sank as he looked out on the untouched snowy wilderness of the planet he’d crashed on.

The sun, fainter than he was used to, had noticeably moved by the time the next whisper caught his attention. _Did you know,_ it said, speaking so deeply in his mind that it felt like a bad holo connection—like running his fingers through the staticky transmitter— _that we used to test those who sought to become us,_ as the words faded, Obi-Wan leaned into the cold gust, straining to hear the end of the story. _Like **this**._

He realized his mistake when he took a half-step forward onto snow that crumbled beneath him. He called on the Force to hold onto the edge of the ridge as the snow slid out from under his foot, but the wind became solid and an invisible hand pushed him over the edge with a flash of malevolent delight in the Force.

He tumbled down the mountainside and crashed through the opening of somewhere dark before he fell unconscious for the second time that day.

* * *

There was only high-pitched ringing before Obi-Wan could pick out anything above the shrieking din in his ears.

At least he’d been fortunate enough to land mostly on his pack. After a few moments he could pick out water dripping somewhere, and the wind had quieted considerably now that he was out of its direct path—he couldn’t hear the ghosts, either, which was an added bonus. From the sound of the water he was in a fairly spacious cave and Obi-Wan set forward cautiously, remembering that the ghosts had mentioned a test of some kind before pushing him off the ledge. Knowing Sith, the test wouldn’t be as easy as surviving the fall.

He paused for a moment, considering why he hadn’t thought of the ghosts as Sith before, and mentally bumped up his estimation of how severe his (likely) concussion was.

The further he went in the cave, the darker it got. He glanced backwards at the hole where soft light was still shining, but it was too steep a climb to make in his condition and he wouldn’t bet on his ability to concentrate well enough to call on the Force for help. The only way out was through.

A few steps into the cave and it was already darker than he’d expected so he ignited his lightsaber. The soft blue glow and familiar hum made his shoulders relax automatically, and he nearly missed the sound of something clicking over rock. He almost kicked out on reflex when he felt the faintest pinch of something tugging at his boot but froze in place instead. Despite the muffled sensation through the leatharis of his boot, the faint sensation of something climbing over his toes made his skin crawl. Under the faint light of his lightsaber all he could make out was shadow on shadow, but the thing seemed to be a small beetle-like insect with a glossy shell.

He exhaled through gritted teeth and pushed on.

He could deal with a few bugs.

A soft scuttling sound caught his attention as he moved further in and he turned around cautiously, but he could only see the small bits of light reflecting off the pitch-black rock around him.

Reaching out with his currently limited senses, all he could feel were the normal life-signs of small cave creatures, nothing pinging against his mind larger than the beetle.

If the shadows were shifting around him, it was surely his concussion.

The dim glow of his lightsaber couldn’t illuminate much, but the credit finally dropped when he reached the inner chamber. The rock was matte, like the stone in the forest—the _altar._ None of the walls he’d just passed seemed to suck in light like the walls of this chamber did, instead reflecting it back—glittering. 

Like the shell of the beetle that had crawled over his foot.

He lunged for the entrance of the chamber but like a rising tide, the insects that had been _following him along the walls_ invaded the room. He took out dozens at a time with wide sweeps of his lightsaber but there were thousands of them, and it only took one to reach him before a bolt of searing pain shot through his ankle and he stumbled.

He was reduced to frantic flailing as they swarmed over him, dealing agony wherever their pinchers found exposed flesh. In seconds he couldn’t feel his hands or feet, and he didn’t know how he was still breathing buried under the mass of insects.

 _I will survive,_ he vowed to the Sith ghosts who were no longer hiding their presence from him, reveling in his pain.

_We will see._

There was the slightest brush of wind against his cheek, and then he screamed.

**Author's Note:**

> once upon a time i had the horrible idea that sith pinchbugs could be compelled to sting sith apprentices in the shape of a rune that would determine their success as a sith because pinchbug venom was supposedly used as a component in sith tattoo ink and now i’m going to make it everyone else’s problem


End file.
